Paperboard container with liquid flavor retaining means



March 8, 1966 v. ARsLANlAN 3,239,126

PAPERBOARD CONTAINER WITH LIQUID FLAVOR RETAINING MEANS Filed Dec. 2?, 1965 INVENTOR.

United States Patent O 3,239,125 PAPERBOARD CONTAINER WITH LIQUID FLAVOR RETAINlNG MEANS Vincent Arslanian, Farmington, Mich., assignor to Ex-Cell-O Corporation Filed Dec. 27, 1963, Ser. No. 333,921 1 Claim. (Cl. 229-35) This invention in general relates to paperboard containers and in particular to the wall construction for avored concentrated Syrups.

Coated paperboard containers are being used in increasing quantities as food containing bottles in place of other commonly used means, such as glass bottles. The success of this new style container has caused much demand for new and various applications. At the present time, the largest use for coated paperboard containers is for bottling milk. As the variety of products packaged in the coated paperboard containers continues to increase and vary, certain characteristics of the container are required to be altered to give more satisfactory service in these new uses. In many of these new and varied uses the containers are used to package products which will have shelf life requirements considerably longer than milk for example. A good example of this type of product would be concentrated syrups used in the soft drink industry. In the present available coated paperboard containers the liavo'ring agents in some of these concentrated Syrups may pass through the thermoplastic coating of the paperboard and out into the atmosphere, thus changing the taste characteristic of "the syrup as provided for by the manufacturer.

One object of the present invention is to provide a container having surface construction such'that the flavoring agents of the various liquids is not able to escape through the surfaces.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a pre-coated paperboard container which will have the general characteristics in size of the present container permitting it to be fabricated on the presently available equipment.

Also, an object of the present invention includes the provision of a container structure capable of accomplishing the above' objectives with a minimum of material cost and manufacturing expense and at the same time being composed of a simple and ruggedly formed structure which will be reliable in application.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and claims, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which form part of the instant specification, and which are to be read in conjunction therewith, and like reference numerals are used to indicate like parts in the various use.

FIG. 1 is a layout view of a inside surface of a container body blank, which the present invention could be adapted to;

FIG. 2 is a perspective View of a container fabricated from the blank shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flat side seamed blank made from the -container blank shown in FIG. 1 and showing the outside surface thereof;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view through a side panel taken on the line 4-4 in FIG. 2.

While the invention is susceptible of various modifications and alternative constructions, a certain illustrative embodiment has been shown in the drawings and will be described below in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit the invention to the specific form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, alternative constructions and Mice equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claim.

Referring generally to the figures, we have a container body 10 shown in FIG. 1 as the inside surface of a ilat blank having a pattern of appropriate score lines. The container is separated into three groups by staggered score lines 11 and 12. The area above score line 11 as seen in FIG. l is a top closure, a discussion of which is not necessary for the disclosure of the present invention; however, a complete disclosure is given in U.S. Patent No. 3,185,376, issued May 25, 1965 assigned to the assignee of record. The area between score lines 11 and 12 as seen in FIG. 1 is a body and comprises four panels 13 through 16 and side seam flap 17. The container body 10 is` dened on the sides by cut edges 18 and 19. The panels 13 through 16 and side seam ap 17 are separated by score lines 21 through 24. The area below score line 12 as seen in FIG. 1 is a bottom closure, a complete discussion of which is not necessary to the disclosure of the present invention; however, a complete disclosure is given in a co-pending application U.S. S.N. 184,230 filed April 2, 1962, Patent No. 3,120,333.

The bottom closure group below score line 12 is made up of major aps 25 and 27 and minor fiaps 26 and 28. The minor flaps 26 and 28 are anked by fold-back members 33-34 and 37-38, respectively. The top closure group is made up of roof panels 41 and 43 and end panels 42 and 44. End panels 42 and 44 are flanked by triangular fold-back panels 46-47 and 48-49, respectively. The panels extending over the top of panels 41 through 44, upon construction as viewed in FIG. 2, form a closure rib 45.

To construct a container as shown in FIG. 2 from the blank in FIG. l, a flat side seamed blank 1t) is formed, as viewed in FIG. 3. To form a flat side seamed blank panel 16 and the side seam Hap 17 would be folded about score line 23 until their inside surfaces contact the inside surfaces of panels 15 and 14, respectively. The panel 13 would be folded about score line 21 so that its inside `surface contacts the inside surface of panel 14 and the outside surface of side seam flap 17. The inside surface of panel 13 along edge 18, which contacts the outside surface of side seam flap 17, and the outside surface of iiap 17, which contacts the inside surface of panel 18, may be heated to activate their coatings if coated with a heat scalable material or glue material may be applied t-o one or both of these surfaces so they will be bonded together.

The container blank 10 as `shown in FIG. 3 is in the form in which it will be fabricated on packaging machines. For example, the unit disclosed in U.S. Patent 3,002,328 which issued October 3, 1961 assigned to the assignee of record.

To form the bottom the container blank 10 is opened up into a tubular form with the major flaps 25 and 27 moving toward each other. Also, the minor flaps 26 and 28 are moved toward each other. This causes fold-back member 38 to rotate around score line 24 so that the inside surfaces of member 38 and ap 25 are coming together. At the same time and during the same movement member 38 is rotating so that the outside surfaces of member 38 and flap 28 are coming together. Fold-back members 33, 34, and 37 make the same movements as member 38 with panels 25-26, 27-26, and 27-28, respectively. Bottom closure major flap 25 moves toward bottom closure major flap 27 just enough faster than flap 27 moves toward flap 25 so that tuck-in member 31 is positioned between fo1d-back member 34 and 37 and major iiap 27.

The top closure group is made as follows. End panels 42 and 44 move toward each other and roof panels 41 and 43 move toward each other. The inside surface of fold-back panel 49 will be moving toward the inside surface of roof panel 41 above score line 24; however, they will not make contact. The outside surface of foldback panel 49 will be moving toward the outside surface of end panel 44 as panel 44 rotates about score line 11 toward panel 42. Fold-back panels 46, 47, and 48 make the same movements as panel 49 with panels 41-42, 43-42, and 43-44, respectively. The top extensions will move together in an appropriate manner and form the closure rib 45.

FIG. 4 shows a partial sectional view of the body wall. Arrow I represents the inside of the container and arrow O represents the outside of the container. Layer 51 is the outside coating which could be made from a thermoplastic material, such as polyethylene. The layer 52 is the paperboard material which is used as the main material of the container body. Layer 53 is an adhesive means, such as polyethylene, used to bind the intermediate layer 54 to the paperboard layer S2. The layer 54 is an aromatic flavoring agent retaining means and is secured to layer 52 by adhesive means 53. Layer 55 is the inside coating which could be made from a thermoplastic material, such as polyethylene. FIG. 4 is not necessarily in scale. The following are typical dimensional gures designating the thickness of layers which could be used in an example application: layer 51-.0005 inch, layer 52-.024 inch, layer 53-.0005 inch, layer 54-.00035 inch, and layer 55-.0010 inch.

The layer S4 which is some type of aromatic avoring agent retaining means could be aluminum foil or a polyester lm such as DuPont markets under the tradename of Mylar which consists generally of the following chemical composition, a polymer of ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. These materials will give the container improved characteristics for retaining the aromatic flavoring agents. The standard type container presently used in general use would have three layers consisting of polyethylene layers on both sides of a layer of paperboard. The standard type of wall construction permits the escape of the aromatic agents quite rapidly thus reducing the storage shelf life. The layer 54 has a low permeability rate which reduces or prevents the escape of the aromatic avoring agents. The aromatic flavoring agent retaining means permits the reduction of the paperboard layer and reduction in the polyethylene internal coating. Also, the laminate layer 54 because of its low permeability rate will protect the layer 55 from damage during the hot stages of manufacture and fabrication. The damage such as pin hole ruptures are eliminated or reduced because the air and moisture `of the paperboard are not permitted to escape easily to the inner layer 55.

While the embodiment of the present invention herein disclosed is a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms may be adapted and still be within the spirit and scope of the presently disclosed invention.

I claim the following:

A self-sustaining aromatic avoring agent retaining pressure heat-sealed gable top container formed from a l one-piece foldable laminated blank of paperboard, said container comprising:

(a) four substantially rectangular side wall panels forming a tubular body of s uare cross section having a fold-in gable top closure,

(b) a fold-in bottom closure formed by first and second pairs of opposed bottom closure panels connected to said body, said second pair of bottom closure panels being triangular in shape and infolded between said body and said irst pair of bottom closure panels,

(c) two pairs of Isubstantially triangular fold-back panels, each pair of which is connected to a respective one of said triangular bottom panels and to respective ones of said rst pair of opposed bottom closure panels, said fold-back panels being folded back upon said triangular bottom panels through an arc of substantially 180 about their common score lines,

(d) said container being formed from paperboard having a thickness of the order of .024 inch thermally bonded between inner and exterior overall layers of moisture impervious polyethylene having substantially equal thickness of approximately .0005 inch,

(e) an intermediate layer of aluminum foil having a thickness of the order of .00035 inch thermally bonded to said inner layer of polyethylene,

(f) an interior surface layer of polyethylene having a thickness of approximately twice that of said exterior layer thermally bonded to said layer of aluminum foil, and

(g) selected portions of the exterior and interior surfaces of certain of said panels overlapping and pressure heat-sealed to adjacent exterior or interior surfaces of other of said panels to form a liquid-proof semi-rigid container, whereby said intermediate layer will protect said interior layer during pressure-heat stages from entrapped air and moisture from said paperboard, while preventing the escape of liquid avoring agents through said container.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,400,390 5/ 1946 Clunan 229-35 2,719,100 9/1955 Banigan.

2,774,698 12/1956 Jenk et al.

2,778,760 1/1957 Hurst 161-216 X 2,954,912 10/1960 Kauffeld 229-3.5 2,975,955 3/1961 McCurry.

3,056,492 10/ 1962 Campbell.

3,064,874 11/1962 Kauffeld 229-23 3,120,333 2/1964 Seiple 229-37 3,125,276 3/1964 Zinn 229-37 X FRANKLIN T. GARRETT, Primary Examiner.

J. L. KRUTER, Assistant Examiner. 

